The whole expense song and dance with mutual is a mess for the common investor to deal with. Intentionally, I'm sure, so that you just pay blindly in an effort to save the time and hassle. But this isn't the point of my reply.

Not that there's anything wrong with that. But potential ownership of a mutual fund rating service from, yup, mutual fund companies, certainly does open a whole new can of conflict of interest worms.

I know, I know, bond rating services like S&P (MHP) or Moody's (MCO) are publicly traded too (and both owned in a big way by Goldman, but I digress)... All I am saying is that this is an emerging issue for users of M* to be aware of.

So keep reading those prospecti, there's a reason the law makes them available.